An unexpected encounter changes the lives of two women—both immigrants searching for purpose and a better life. Through their interwoven journey, both will question and embrace their faith. When one is asked to be the Arabic translator for a Moroccan woman newly arrived at a Spanish safe house, she has no idea of the journey upon which she is embarking. Born into privilege, she will come face to face with the ugly, dark side of the world, the suffering so many endure. She will also discover the joy and heartbreak of loving broken women, joining forces with them, fighting back to survive and thrive. Faith will guide their way, faltering at times, returning stronger. Journey along with them in this sometimes heart-wrenching, sometimes soaring memoir of discovery, disappointment, and redemption. Partial proceeds of the book will go to Habiba and the safe house work in Spain. “M.F. Renée is a poet, and this is a beautiful, powerful story. Her passion for the subject and her friend drips off every page. I’m never going to look at strawberries the same way again.” —Lorraine Thomas "A haunting story to remind us of the horrors some live through in this life . . . but also a beautiful story to remind us there is hope and redemption." —Kat Caldwell "While the subject matter is difficult, the story is not. It is a lovely tale of friendship, faith, and the difference even one person can make in the world. Read it, and share it." —Madison Michael
From a young writer quickly becoming the quintessential foreign correspondent for a new generation, comes the compelling, tragicomic account of the centuries old quest for gold in South America.
"Epic in its scale, fearless in its scope" (Hampton Sides), this masterfully told account of the American West from a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist sets a new standard as it sweeps from the California Gold Rush and beyond. In Dreams of El Dorado, H. W. Brands tells the thrilling, panoramic story of the settling of the American West. He takes us from John Jacob Astor's fur trading outpost in Oregon to the Texas Revolution, from the California gold rush to the Oklahoma land rush. He shows how the migrants' dreams drove them to feats of courage and perseverance that put their stay-at-home cousins to shame-and how those same dreams also drove them to outrageous acts of violence against indigenous peoples and one another. The West was where riches would reward the miner's persistence, the cattleman's courage, the railroad man's enterprise; but El Dorado was at least as elusive in the West as it ever was in the East. Balanced, authoritative, and masterfully told, Dreams of El Dorado sets a new standard for histories of the American West.
One of the world's most legendary and elusive treasures, sought after for centuries. . . An ancient mystery.A Lost Treasure.A Hidden City.An impossible location.An unimaginable adventure. Included in Aztec and Mayan legends, Conquistadors had heard rumors of its existence when exploring the New World, but never found it. During World War 2, Nazi inspired archaeologists were convinced they had pinpointed its location. They packed a U-Boat with supplies and set a course for the Amazon Jungle. They disappeared!Many adventurers eager to claim the legendary gold as their own entered one of the most inhospitable places on earth, the Amazon Jungle. Most were never seen again!And yet the exact location of El Dorado and its fantastic hoard of Mayan, Aztec and Inca treasure so many have dreamed of finding, remains a mystery. Any who may have stumbled upon it never returned to tell the tale. It was as if someone, or something, was protecting it... In 1925, Victorian explorer Colonel Percy Fawcett enters the Amazon Jungle to search for a Lost City. Like so many before him, he was never seen or heard from again. Until now!When a message from the past is discovered washed up on an English beach, it reveals new information about the ill-fated 1925 expedition. A modern day expedition sets off to follow in the footsteps of Colonel Fawcett in an attempt to locate the Lost City and its legendary hoard of priceless treasure. El Dorado Book 1 & 2 will take on a journey filled with danger to seek out and enter the fabled Lost City. A thrilling story of adventure and discovery that weaves together an exciting blend of fact and fiction linked to the legends surrounding El Dorado, the lost Fawcett expedition and the mysterious Amazonian Jungle. Rumored to be guarded by remote, mist-veiled mountains, the fabulous treasure hoard was hidden from the greedy clutches of Spanish conquistadors somewhere deep inside the unforgiving and mysterious Amazon jungle. As far as anyone knows, it is still there. Waiting to be discovered by those brave or foolhardy enough, to try their luck. Reviews "This is a terrific two book series set within the atmospherically described Amazon jungle. I could easily imagine myself tagging along with the adventurers." "If you like reading Clive Cussler, Matthew Reilly, James Rollins or Michael Crichton, you will enjoy this action adventure from Ben Hammott." " Has all the ingredients for an instant success: great plot, interesting characters, a large dose of mystery, impressive locations , unexpected twists and discoveries, deception and betrayal and even a touch of romance and a spattering of humor. This story will keep you entertained from beginning to end. Recommended for the permanent library of all action adventure readers." "The Mysterious and Dangerous Amazon Jungle, Subterranean Rooms, Tunnels, Pyramids, Ancient Aliens, Nazis, Traps, Thrilling Escapes, Chases, Strange Creatures, Dangerous Enemies, a Lost City and Great Characters, are just a few ingredients that make this exciting adventure thriller a must read for fans of this genre." (NY.Post.book.reviews) "From bestselling author Ben Hammott this action packed adventure takes you into the Amazon Jungle to follow in the footsteps of lost Victorian Explorer, Colonel Percy Fawcett. What we have here, in part, is an excellent dramatization of what may have happened to Fawcett and what he may have discovered in the unexplored regions of the Amazon. The well written plot is seldom predictable and some of the characters you think are safe, and will be alive by the time the book reaches its climax, are not. Sights and sounds of the Amazon are described well and help to set the atmospheric tone the explorers travel through. A thoroughly enjoyable adventure."An exciting archaeological mystery thriller with flashbacks to Colonel Fawcett's 1925 Expedition.
“The definitive history of the studio” created by the larger-than-life team of Spielberg, Geffen, and Katzenberg (Los Angeles Times). For sixty years, since the birth of United Artists, the studio landscape was unchanged. Then came Hollywood’s Circus Maximus—created by director Steven Spielberg, billionaire David Geffen, and Jeffrey Katzenberg, who gave the world The Lion King—an entertainment empire called DreamWorks. Now Nicole LaPorte, who covered the company for Variety, goes behind the hype to reveal for the first time the delicious truth of what happened. Readers will feel they are part of the creative calamities of moviemaking as LaPorte’s fly-on-the-wall detail shows us Hollywood’s bizarre rules of business. We see the clashes between the often-otherworldly Spielberg’s troops and Katzenberg’s warriors, the debacles and disasters, but also the Oscar-winning triumphs, including Saving Private Ryan. We watch as the studio burns through billions of dollars, its rich owners get richer, and everybody else suffers. LaPorte displays Geffen, seducing investors like Microsoft’s Paul Allen, showing his steel against CAA’s Michael Ovitz, and staging fireworks during negotiations with Paramount and Disney. Here is a blockbuster behind-the-scenes Hollywood story—up close, glamorous, and gritty.
Chronicling the British pursuit of the legendary El Dorado, Masters of All They Surveyed tells the fascinating story of geography, cartography, and scientific exploration in Britain's unique South American colony, Guyana. How did nineteenth-century Europeans turn areas they called terra incognita into bounded colonial territories? How did a tender-footed gentleman, predisposed to seasickness (and unable to swim), make his way up churning rivers into thick jungle, arid savanna, and forbidding mountain ranges, survive for the better part of a decade, and emerge with a map? What did that map mean? In answering these questions, D. Graham Burnett brings to light the work of several such explorers, particularly Sir Robert H. Schomburgk, the man who claimed to be the first to reach the site of Ralegh's El Dorado. Commissioned by the Royal Geographical Society and later by the British Crown, Schomburgk explored and mapped regions in modern Brazil, Venezuela, and Guyana, always in close contact with Amerindian communities. Drawing heavily on the maps, reports, and letters that Schomburgk sent back to England, and especially on the luxuriant images of survey landmarks in his Twelve Views in the Interior of Guiana (reproduced in color in this book), Burnett shows how a vast network of traverse surveys, illustrations, and travel narratives not only laid out the official boundaries of British Guiana but also marked out a symbolic landscape that fired the British imperial imagination. Engagingly written and beautifully illustrated, Masters of All They Surveyed will interest anyone who wants to understand the histories of colonialism and science.
Lustrous, tender, and expansive, Gold Cure moves from boomtown gold mines and the mythical city of El Dorado to the fracking wells of the American interior, excavating buried histories, legacies of conquest, and the pursuit of shimmering ideals. Ted Mathys skewers police brutality on the ribs of a nursery rhyme and drives Petrarchan sonnets into shale fields deep under the prairies. In crystalline language rich with allegory and wordplay, Mathys has crafted a moving elegy for the Anthropocene.
